


Laissez le bon temps rouler!

by EnderAvis



Category: Call of Duty (Video Games)
Genre: Call of Duty - Freeform, MW2 - Freeform, Mardi Gras, modern warfare - Freeform, not a ship fic this time! Wow!, poor soap just wants to eat and gets abandoned, price is so tired lmao
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-13 12:43:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29526582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EnderAvis/pseuds/EnderAvis
Summary: Soap, Ghost, and Price have to hunt down an informant in south France to get to Makarov. There’s one catch, it’s during the biggest parade in France.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	Laissez le bon temps rouler!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to my friend Stress for some of the ideas!  
> Enjoy.

“And why do I have to go? Wouldn’t Roach be better suited to this?” Ghost asked bluntly. 

“Because, we have to be undercover and you’re the only one who’s face wouldn’t show up on the news at a first glance.”

  
  


“So I’m going maskless?”

  
  


“Precisely.”

  
  


“Then why are you and Soap doing it? I feel like two men who are known for their beard and mohawk would be spotted almost instantly.”

  
  


Price sighed, Ghost really would be a perfect soldier if he just followed orders and stopped asking questions.

  
  


“We know who to look for, and it’s going to be in the middle of a festival, no one will recognize us.”

  
  


“What festival is this?”

  
  


“Mardi Gras.”

  
  


“Mardi Gras? The hell is that?”

  
  


“It’s a holiday that comes before Lent, which is a fasting thing,” Soap called from across the room.

  
  


“How do  _ you _ know that?”

  
  


“My dog tags don’t say Roman Catholic for nothing, mate, and I’ve had to explain it four times today.”

  
  


“You’re catholic?”

  
  


“Not a practicing one.”

  
  


Ghost looked back at Price, “You learn something new every day.”

  
  


“You’re telling me. We leave in four days, be ready.”

  
  


“Got it.”

  
  


Ghost went and sat next to Soap, who was looking through something on his phone.

  
  


“A mission during a catholic holiday, in France, in the middle of a parade?” He leaned his head against his hand, “Sounds like it’ll be a mess.”

  
  


“Trust me, it will be,” Soap assured.

  
  


The four days went by quickly and soon they were in a helicopter and being dropped off a few blocks from their objective.

  
  


They hid their rifles and utility in backpacks and put pistols in their holsters.

  
  


“We need to blend in, our guy is most likely in plain sight and moving with the crowd,” Price ordered.

  
  


The trio simply walked along the sidewalk, being careful not to stray too far from each other. The amount and density of people started to pick up rapidly though, forcing them apart. Soap took a curious look at someone he was walking next to, studying the purple and gold embossed mask and outfit he was wearing. From where Soap was standing he could see that the crowd had stopped a good few blocks ahead of where they were walking. 

  
  


Soap couldn’t see Ghost or Price so he turned on the radio on his shoulder.

  
  


_ “Crowd’s stopped half a klick north.” _

  
  


_ “Roger, we stop and when the parade starts we make our way through it. Keep your eyes peeled for our guy.”  _ Price reminded them. 

  
  


_ “Copy that.”  _ Soap affirmed.

  
  


_ “Copy.”  _ Ghost said too.

  
  


They slowly made their way to the blockade. Soap smelled something sweet being cooked and headed for that instead though. He was starving since he didn’t eat on the way over and whatever these were smelled  _ wonderful _ . He got in the line that was rapidly forming. He read a sign that said “Beignets, 3€ per” and the same in French underneath it. Soap ordered some and made his way back through the crowd, munching on the sugary fried dough. 

  
  


Ghost was the farthest ahead, at the edge of the road where the floats would go by. The floats themselves were still getting the very last touches a mile north before they rolled out.

  
  


Price had stopped to scout the area and look for their informant before he realized someone was yelling at him.

  
  


“I don’t speak French.”

  
  


“Will you be the king?”

  
  


What? King? Before he could ask he was swept into a building with other people getting dressed up. There was shouting and talking in various languages as everyone got ready, the parade started in less than fifteen minutes. He was given a fur vest and a scepter while someone set a heavy crown onto his head. He was still comprehending the chaos around him when someone took the vest and put it on him. Price was quickly ushered out of a back door and down the block to where the floats were. 

  
  


Ten minutes later and Soap finally caught up with Ghost. 

  
  


“Where’s Price? We were supposed to stick together,” Soap asked. 

  
  


“Hell if I know, I thought he was with you.”

  
  


Soap tilted his head toward his radio.

  
  


_ “Price where the bloody hell are you?” _

  
  


_ “Would you believe me if I said on one of the floats?” _

  
  


_ “I wouldn’t.” _

  
  


_ “Then you won’t believe that I’m the king either.” _

  
  


Soap laughed.  _ “Sounds like you’re in a pickle, mate. What’s the new plan?” _

  
  


_ “Enjoy Mardi Gras until I can get off this blasted thing.” _

  
  


_ “Really?” _

  
  


_ “No, go on without me until we can regroup.” _

  
  


_ “Aye.” _

  
  


“You love to hear it,” Soap joked.

  
  


Ghost opened his mouth but closed it as a blast of music started. He, along with everyone else gathered on the sidewalk, quickly turned to watch as the floats made their way downtown. 

  
  


Soap had turned around for five minutes because he saw a muffuletta stand and was still hungry.

  
  


Ghost saw someone gesture to him and hold up their palette with paint on it. He walked over, if he couldn’t have his mask why shouldn’t he do face paint? After they were finished they held a mirror up so he could see gold and purple curling together with green around his eyes. 

  
  


“Thanks.”

  
  


They nodded and smiled before pointing over his shoulder, the first floats were going by with people dancing and yelling alongside them. Everyone was dressed in ridiculous outfits. Ghost quickly took his phone out to take a picture. Before he could, however, someone had hooked his arm in theirs and dragged him into the large group of dancers. Ghost panicked before realizing that a few others were being brought in too. 

  
  


Soap turned back around, eating his muffuletta and he could instantly tell that Ghost was gone. This mission couldn’t have gone more awry. He went to the edge of the sidewalk and searched for Ghost but one of the performers had dumped at least forty necklaces onto him. He just shook his head and sighed before turning his radio on.

  
  


_ “If we get separated one more time I’m finding our informant and going home by myself.” _

  
  


_ “By all means, go ahead.”  _ Price said. 

  
  


_ “I’ll get back to you in just a minute, Soap, don’t you worry.”  _ Ghost assured.

  
  


Soap turned his radio back off and watched the parade for another minute. Before he could turn and make his way down the block something caught his eye. That something was none other than Captain Price wearing a king crown and holding a scepter, still looking very confused. Soap grinned, he was never going to let Price forget about this. As the float passed someone ran past him, two others followed in quick succession. Soap peered down the path that they cut into the crowd. As he saw them turn the corner he got a good look at their face. That was their informant. Soap broke into an all out spirit after him. 

  
  


Soap chased him at a distance, making sure not to draw suspicion. Ghost was hot on Soap’s heels and almost crashed into him when he stopped. He only glanced at Ghost before hurrying into a temporarily abandoned building and heading up to the roof. 

  
  


“They’re in the building diagonally to us and by the looks of it they aren’t planning to have a friendly chat with our guy,” Soap explained. 

  
  


He kept heading to the roof and pulled off his backpack, getting his gun out. Ghost copied him as they went prone and looked down their sights to watch what was going down. Their informant was being backed against the wall as the two men encircled him. 

  
  


Soap and Ghost couldn’t hear what they were saying but it was obvious as one of the men shoved a pistol into his face and gestured wildly. The informant looked frantic as he tried to defend himself but he was too late. The informant was dead. Ghost quickly put his gun down and turned his radio on, swearing.

  
  


_ “Price, I’ve got bad news…” _

  
  


_ “What happened?” _

  
  


_ “Me and Soap just watched someone shoot our informant point blank.” _

  
  


_ “Bloody hell! We need to get out of here now!” _

  
  


_ “Copy.” _

  
  


Soap, who was listening on his own radio, switched channels to talk to their exfil.

  
  


_ “Roach, Nikolai, we need you guys here as soon as possible.” _

  
  


_ “So soon? Isn’t there a night parade too?” _

  
  


_ “We ran into some… issues. We’ll tell you all about it if you ever pick us up.” _

  
  


_ “We’re landing in ten minutes.”  _ Nikolai affirmed.

  
  


_ “Roger that.” _

  
  


Soap sighed and looked at Ghost, “So what happened to you when we got split up?”

  
  


“They were taking volunteers to walk alongside the floats.”

  
  


“And you did that willingly?”

  
  


“No, but it  _ was _ fun.”

  
  


Price showed up just as Nikolai was setting down on top of the roof. He looked angry but Ghost could barely hide his smile at the sight of his outfit. They all got inside the helicopter as Nikolai took off again swiftly.

  
  


Roach snorted upon seeing the gang for the first time, “Nice crown, Price.”

  
  


“Shut it.”

  
  


“What happened to you two?” Roach laughed as he turned to Soap and Ghost.

  
  


Ghost had purple, green, and gold face paint on and there was golden glitter in his hair. Soap was wearing dozens of beaded necklaces and also had glitter in his hair. 

  
  


“We got separated and the rest isn’t important,” Ghost said gruffly. “What  _ is _ important is that we lost our informant, so Makarov’s still a loose end.”

  
  


Roach made a face at Ghost, he was awfully frustrated for just coming back from a world class parade.

  
  


“Oh that reminds me,” Soap pulled his backpack off and dug through it before tossing Roach a container. “Here, bug, thought you’d like a piece of king cake.”

  
  


“Really Soap?” Ghost asked.

  
  


“I hadn’t eaten since yesterday, I was starving and everything smelled good.”

  
  


As the two of them bickered Roach took a bite before yelping in pain.

  
  


“Ow! What the hell?” He spit out a small plastic baby before bringing his hand to mouth.

  
  


“What?”

  
  


“I think I chipped my tooth on whatever was in that cake.”

  
  


“No way, smile?”

  
  


Roach smiled, it wasn’t too obvious but he was right, he had chipped one of his front teeth.

  
  


“I have  _ never _ seen that happen,” Soap laughed. 

  
  


“Consider me lucky then.”

  
  


“Funnily enough, getting the baby in your slice does means prosperity and luck.”

  
  


Roach looked toward Price with an amused look and only got an eye roll in return. 

  
  


He couldn’t wait for Mardi Gras next year. 

**Author's Note:**

> Is it obvious I’ve never been to a Mardi Gras parade? Too bad.


End file.
